CEO of ChargePoint, Pat Romano, center, NYSERDA's Frank Murray and National Grid regional exec Bill Flaherty, at right, unveil a new EV charging station at Homewood Suites in Colonie, NY, Wednesday May 22, ... more

Photo: John Carl D'Annibale

Car-charging potential gets $1M jolt

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Colonie

There are 40,000 electric cars on New York roads — about triple the number from a year ago.

State policymakers want to increase that to 1 million by 2025.

But that's a tough sell when even a compact model costs $30,000 and a home charging system costs another $2,000, making the total cost of ownership roughly the same as a conventional car.

And the real market issue now, experts say, is "range anxiety."

That's the fear electric car owners have that their vehicles will run out of power between charges.

NYSERDA, the state's energy authority, is spending $1 million collected from utility customers on a new program to put car chargers across upstate — including one recently installed behind the Homewood Suites on Wolf Road in Colonie. The hotel will absorb the costs of the charging — expected to be about $300 a year — as part of the agreement.

A California company called ChargePoint was awarded the money to put in 80 of the devices, which have an installed cost of $12,000 for a model that can charge two cars at once. The Bay Area company is working with National Grid on 67 of the chargers in the utility's upstate service territory, which includes the Capital Region. The companies are spending an additional $550,000 of their own money on the rollout.

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The U.S. Department of Energy says there are 198 public car-charging stations in the state, but a lot more will be needed to get 1 million electric cars on the road in New York.

ChargePoint CEO Pat Romano said Wednesday that a sustainable electric car market needs one public charger for every five electric vehicles on the road.

Frank Murray, NYSERDA's CEO, says over time the cost of installing the chargers will shift to the private sector, with retailers wanting to attract electric car owners and car manufacturers taking a larger role.